Harvesting the radial artery.

The radial artery (RA) has emerged as an important arterial graft for coronary bypass surgery. With improving five-year patency rates and increasing uptake, great attention has been focused on the optimal conduit harvesting technique. We herein present our approach to RA harvesting.

Lateral placement of bipolar clamp facilitates pulmonary vein isolation.

The surgical management of atrial fibrillation is becoming more commonplace with the procedure of pulmonary vein isolation forming the cornerstone of the treatment of atrial fibrillation. In this article a technique is described to introduce a dry bipolar radiofrequency clamp into the chest through a lateral port sized incision to safely effect pulmonary vein isolation in patients with low ejection fractions undergoing a concomitant mini-maze procedure. Confirmation of the transmurality and effectiveness of the lines of ablation is shown by the demonstration of bidirectional block to and from the pulmonary veins.

Video-assisted bilateral pulmonary vein isolation and left atrial appendage exclusion for atrial fibrillation.

Objective: Pulmonary vein isolation is curative in selected patients with atrial fibrillation. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility and safety (midterm results) of video-assisted thoracoscopic epicardial pulmonary vein isolation.

Methods: Twenty-seven patients (22 male patients) with atrial fibrillation (18 paroxysmal, 4 persistent, and 5 permanent; average age, 57 years) underwent bilateral video-assisted thoracoscopic off-pump epicardial pulmonary vein isolation and exclusion of the left atrial appendage.